MTN Launches Money Transfer Service Between Ivory Coast And Benin

Johannesburg – MTN Group on Monday announced the launch of a mobile money cross-border remittance service between Ivory Coast and Benin, to further enable the cheaper and easy movement of money in the West Africa region.

The Ivory Coast-Benin mobile money cross-border corridor follows the successful introduction of a similar service in April this year between Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso. This corridor is already proving popular with users.

“The launch of this new corridor is an important part of our mobile financial services strategy. The new service will take advantage of the extensive distribution network of MTN Mobile Money in both countries, and reduce the cost of sending and receiving money for our customers,” says Pieter Verkade, MTN Group Chief Commercial Officer.

The introduction of cross-border remittance forms part of MTN’s strategy to increase financial inclusion through the use of mobile technologies, and to reduce the cost of transferring money between countries.

“The ability to transfer money easily and cheaply between Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast is already revolutionising the lives of many of our customers. As with the Burkina service, the Benin corridor will not only connect families, but also facilitate trade and business partnerships on a regional scale,” says Wim Vanhelleputte, CEO of MTN Ivory Coast.

As of 30 September 2014, MTN Mobile Money had 22,2 million registered users and was available in 15 countries. MTN Mobile Money enables users to perform local and international money transfers, make utility payments, save money in their interest bearing mobile wallets, purchase airtime and access a range of mobile financial products.

“The Benin-Ivory Coast corridor will benefit our customers in many ways. A large number of Beninese live in Ivory Coast and the cost-effective service will undoubtedly increase the economic flows between the two countries and reinforce family ties by allowing fast, affordable and reliable money transfer,” adds Malik Melamu, CEO of MTN Benin.

MTN continues to pursue opportunities to develop unique offerings and improve customers’ experience of the MTN Mobile Money service. These include more cross-border remittance partnerships to reduce the cost of cross border transfers, as well as other value added services to add to its growing mobile financial services portfolio.